No. 1 Tech Women's Tennis Sweeps Auburn, 7-0

Tech swept all six singles and all three doubles matches

Kirsten Flower

Jan. 23, 2008

ATLANTA -
No. 1 Georgia Tech swept all three doubles matches and cruised to straight-set wins in five of six singles matches to sweep Auburn, 7-0, Wednesday evening at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn, Ala. The win was the Yellow Jackets' (1-0) 22nd in a row, while the Tigers fell to 0-1 on the year.

"This is a great way to start the season," Georgia Tech head coach Bryan Shelton said. "Auburn was a very tough test for us today, as we knew they would be. Everyone on their team battled well, so it was good to see our girls play well under pressure."

After Kristi Miller and Kirsten Flower picked up an 8-2 win over the Tigers' top duo of Alex Haney and Melissa Koning, Noelle Hickey and Christy Striplin gave the Jackets the doubles point with an 8-4 victory against Gabrielle Beelen and Whitney Chappell at the third doubles position. Whitney McCray and Amanda McDowell then completed the doubles sweep with an 8-7 (6) tiebreaker win versus Fani Chifchieva and Jil Hastenrath.

Flower put the Jackets up, 2-0, in the match by dropping Beelen, 6-0, 6-2, at the sixth singles position before No. 22 McCray notched a 6-1, 6-4 victory at the No. 3 spot to give Tech the 3-0 lead. After 56th-ranked Noelle Hickey posted the first dual-match win of her career, 6-3, 6-1, over Hastenrath at the No. 5 position, third-ranked McDowell pushed the score to 5-0 by stopping Chifchieva, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 2 singles.

No. 7 Miller pulled the Jackets to within one point of the match sweep with a 7-5, 6-3 victory against Auburn's 86th-ranked Haney before No. 38 Striplin pulled out a 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (8) comeback victory at the fourth singles position for the seventh and final point of the match.

"It will be nice to get back to Atlanta for our home opener this Saturday against USF, another tough opponent that played us really well last year," Shelton added. "It will be great to play in front of our fans again."

The Jackets and Bulls will square off Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. Live stats will be available at RamblinWreck.com, and admission to the match is free.